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Jensen Huang, who co-founded Nvidia, is out as its CEO. (1)
Huang resigned as president and chief executive and gave up his board seat, Engadget reports. Nvidia named its chief financial officer, Colette Kress, interim CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement. (2)
It came after The New York Times reported a second alleged affair, this one with an Nvidia executive, and The Wall Street Journal reported that the board was preparing to oust him, according to ABC7 News. (3)
Nvidia shares had already slid 8.6% in after-hours trading Wednesday. (4) On Thursday, the stock slid more than 10% in premarket trading, after the company lost more than $600 billion in market value this week. (1)
That came on top of a rough month. Even before the latest news, Nvidia was down about 14% in November, according to Yahoo Finance. (5)
If you think this doesn’t involve you, check your 401(k). Nvidia makes up 6.30% of the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, a fund that tracks the S&P 500, as of Nov. 10. (6)
I’ve been a CPA since 1981, and I own Nvidia myself. I’m not here to judge Huang. I’m here to tell you what this mess means for your taxes, because a falling stock can actually cut your tax bill if you handle it right. (7)
Here are five things to know, including one big mistake to avoid.
1. If you own Nvidia through an index fund, don’t panic-sell
Let’s put real numbers on it. Say you have $400,000 in an S&P 500 index fund. At a 6.30% weighting, about $25,200 of that is Nvidia.
If Nvidia drops another 10%, your account loses roughly $2,520. That’s about 0.6% of the $400,000. It stings, but it’s not a reason to dump a fund that owns hundreds of other companies.
And as Schwab puts it, tax-loss harvesting “isn’t useful in retirement accounts, such as a 401(k) or an IRA.” (8) So bailing out of your index fund now gives you the pain without any tax benefit.
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2. If you bought shares near the top, make the IRS share the pain
Here’s the silver lining for anyone who owns Nvidia shares in a regular taxable brokerage account and is sitting on a loss.
Sell, and that loss first offsets any capital gains you have this year. If losses are left over, you can deduct up to $3,000 of them against your other income, or $1,500 if you’re married filing separately. Anything beyond that carries forward to future years. (7)
Example: You paid $22,000 for shares now worth $15,000. That’s a $7,000 loss. With no other gains this year, $3,000 comes off your taxable income now, and the other $4,000 rolls forward. If you’re in the 22% bracket, that $3,000 deduction alone cuts your federal tax by $660.
To count the loss on your 2026 return, the sale must be executed and settled by the end of the calendar year, Vanguard says, so don’t wait until Dec. 31. (9)
3. Don’t trip the wash-sale rule
This is a common mistake. If you sell at a loss and buy the same stock, or something “substantially identical,” anytime from 30 days before the sale to 30 days after, the IRS won’t let you deduct the loss right away. (10)
The loss isn’t gone. It gets added to the cost of your new shares, so you use it later. (10)
But here’s the trap: Buying the same stock in a different account still counts as a wash sale, even in your IRA. (10) And because IRA assets don’t have a basis, you won’t get to use that deferred loss at all. (10)
If you still believe in Nvidia, wait at least 31 days to buy back in, in any account.
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4. Ask how much of your retirement rides on a handful of tech stocks
The Huang story is a reminder of how fast news about one person can rattle even the biggest company.
If you own Nvidia directly, plus an S&P 500 fund, plus a tech fund, you may own far more of it than you realize. Add up every account. If one company is a big slice of your money, that’s a risk worth fixing on your schedule, not the market’s.
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5. Sitting on a big gain? You may be able to take some for 0%
Now the flip side. Plenty of people who bought Nvidia years ago may still be ahead, even after this drop. I bought in 2020, sold half in 2025 and still own the rest. So I’ve still got a huge gain.
If you’ve held shares more than a year, your profit is a long-term gain. (7) For 2026, the federal rate on long-term gains is 0% for married couples filing jointly with taxable income up to $98,900, or $49,450 for single filers. (11)
Some retirees, especially in the years before required withdrawals kick in, may land under those lines. If you do, trimming a big winner could cost you nothing in federal capital gains tax. Run the numbers before you sell; the gain itself can push you over the line.
The bottom line
Nvidia’s board said Sunday it was opening an independent investigation into whether Huang had been the target of a foreign intelligence effort, and that it still had confidence in him. (12) Four days later, he was gone.
That’s how fast things can change. Don’t make a tax decision, or a retirement decision, on a headline.
If you own Nvidia in a regular account at a loss, you have until year-end to use it, but don’t cut it close. In my view, if you own it through a 401(k), the best move is usually the boring one: Leave it alone, and make sure your mix fits your age.
The lesson here isn’t about this CEO. I think the people who do best with stocks are usually the ones who planned for bad news before it hit.
Sources: 1. Al Jazeera; 2. Engadget; 3. ABC7 News; 4. Euronews; 5. Yahoo Finance; 6. iShares; 7. IRS; 8. Charles Schwab; 9. Vanguard; 10. J.P. Morgan; 11. Tax Foundation; 12. Nvidia
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